THE QASR OF NALOUT

It is the still sympathetic guard that opens and closes the stump. It has réaménagé one of the ancient houses in the village where it exhibits a little crafts and small decorative objects that it carries out itself. An effort to renovate the stump and its village has taken place in recent years. Small signs in English were attached to the main buildings, including a large explanatory sign on the wall of the stump, which recalls the efforts of its inhabitants who have preserved it and recently restored it. Toilets have been built in a building in the middle of the old village.

The presence of several nearby natural sources has made the site suitable for the human installation, and the surroundings of Nalout have other old villages. The stump, pierced small windows of aeration, is surrounded by a path taken by the camels raised by the baskets of food (dried figs…). At the entrance to the stump, notice the small indentations on the stone slabs, where the date of the date were disrupted, the nourriture food was fed. There is a beautiful panoramic view, despite an improvised discharge on the other side of the jebel. Like most of the tornadoes of Jebel Nefousa, the stump of Nalout dominates the heights, isolated by two ravines. An Arabic inscription on the entrance ceiling indicates that it was rebuilt in 1240.

The way to achieve this from the plain was at peak, which obviously represented an asset for the defensive building, but made it painful to move olive and grain crops. The location and small size of the entrance to the fortified attic had been specially planned to complicate the task of the possible invaders: you could enter only an Indian on foot, not on horseback. An underground passage was dug there (at the corner of the entrance), which allowed villagers to support a siege against the Ottomans. This stump is the largest of the fortified greniers preserved in Jebel Nefousa; in some places, it was up to 12 m. The majority of the greniers were greniers on 10 floors, and there were more than 500 floors (7 now) and more than 350 (there are still about). The stump has been in operation since the 1960 s. A small inner lane runs inside the rectangular building, surrounded by greniers on each side. Some of them are the beautiful decorations typical of the region (hands, for example, a common ground in the region, which éloigne the bad eye), the old wooden locks and, on the ground floor, the jars that kept the olive oil, half buried.

Around the stump, houses have long been abandoned: at the beginning of the th century, the inhabitants had preferred the cave houses and had no more than the central mosque, the Al-Aala Mosque, which is still active but closed to visits. You can, however, see the Koranic school nearby. Another small mosque accompanied also by a Koranic school with vaulted ceilings supported by pillar ranks lies behind the stump. A tank had been integrated into the mosque building. In both cases, the form of lime-painted aiguille is typical of the region. The site has three old wineries: the first one near the main street leading to the stump. It is indicated in English a little before the Al-Aala mosque. The second is further on the left and the last, the best preserved, even more left (towards the end of the old village, take left). Abandoned homes fall into ruins. Some are surmounted by a vault that served as a private attic for food, others have a vaulted shape because they were in the extension of one of these greniers.